TEMPE, Ariz. – Albert Pujols is continuing to come to grips with the toll age and injury have taken on him, especially following a second surgery in four years.

As Pujols, 36, reported for spring training Tuesday, he sounded more prepared than ever to be a DH.

“I don’t really care about the DH or playing first base,” Pujols said. “I would love to play first base if I can, but I can’t be selfish. It depends how I feel.”

For most of his first four years since signing a 10-year, $240 million deal with the Angels, Pujols insisted it was important to him to be able to play first, and he didn’t like to DH.

While there is no doubt the Angels are better defensively with Pujols at first, he is now acknowledging that it might not be the best way to keep his bat in the lineup, too.

“The main thing is being in the lineup and helping this organization win,” Pujols said. “I don’t really care, as long as I’m ready to go and help this organization win. That’s my goal.”

Pujols said his target is opening day for being in the lineup, which remains in question because of the rehab from his November foot surgery.

Pujols hurt his right foot when he landed hard on the bag trying to beat a play at first base late last August. He continued to DH the final month despite the injury, which he said Tuesday probably aggravated the injury.

After the season, he gave himself a couple weeks to see if rest would take care of the problem.

“I would have done (the surgery) earlier, but we took the risk to wait and see if it came down,” he said. “But as soon as I started working out again, I started feeling it. It was time to do the surgery.”

Pujols tried to avoid the surgery because Dr. Robert Anderson had told him it was a significant procedure.

“This is not a surgery you really want to have,” Pujols said Anderson told him. “I would prefer to chop your foot off.”

After the surgery, Pujols was in a boot for seven weeks. It’s been a month since he’s been fully cleared to do baseball activities, although he hasn’t done any defensive work yet.

Pujols also said he has been able to continue strengthening his legs this winter. That was an issue following his 2012 knee surgery, and he said he felt his legs were weak in 2013, which may have contributed to the plantar fascia problem.

“I was able to work out pretty hard in the offseason with my leg, even with my therapy,” he said.

Besides Pujols’ health, there are questions about his production.

In 2015, he hit .244 with a .307 on-base percentage, both career lows. Manager Mike Scioscia said he believes Pujols was hitting into some bad luck last year, a fact somewhat supported by Pujols’ .217 batting average on balls in play.

Pujols’ percentage of hitting line drives was down in 2015, from 18.9 percent to 15.9 percent, according to FanGraphs.

Pujols also hit a career-worst .591 on his line drives, compared with .770 for his career and .695 a year earlier. Part of that is probably bad luck and part of it is that teams were able to shrink the field on him more by shifting as he’s become more of a pull hitter.

Asked about the drop in his average and on-base percentage, Pujols said: “Last year was last year. This is 2016, so I could care less about last year. How many home runs did I hit last year?”

Pujols still hit 40 homers, his most with the Angels.

“I don’t think he needs to change anything,” Scioscia said, adding that if Pujols opened up the field more “you might get a little higher average, but the other production numbers, which are more important, might not be as good.”

When Pujols was asked what he expects of himself this season, he said: “To win a championship, man. That’s our goal. That’s what I’m here for. I came here to win. And obviously it hasn’t been too pretty over the last few years, but hopefully we can turn things around.”

The Angels lineup still appears to have some holes, leading most analysts to believe the team will not reach the postseason.

“If you can stay healthy, we have the ballclub we can go out and compete with everybody,” Pujols said. “The paper doesn’t look too good, but you can’t go by that. You have to go by what you do in the field and do whatever you have to do.”

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